Installing IE8

My name is Jane Maliouta and I’m the program manager for IE8 Deployment and Management.

When you install Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 there are a few important things to do before you start. First, I recommend you review the system requirements to make sure IE8 is supported on your computer. Second, take a look at the IE8 Release notes to find known issues and workarounds, so you’ll know what to expect during installation. Third, if the installation fails, we have a knowledge base article on Troubleshooting IE8 installation that guides you through a few workarounds.

Here is some additional information that you might find useful when installing IE8.

Which platforms can I install IE8 on?

IE8 is supported on the following operating systems:

Windows Vista

Windows Vista SP1 (final version only - Currently available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers and Volume License customers)

IE8 is not supported on pre-release versions of Vista SP1 and XP SP3. When installing on earlier builds of Vista SP1, IE8 just won’t install and you will see this error “The installation does not support your operating system’s current Service Pack version.” When installing on earlier builds of XP SP3, the wizard will proceed but your system will be missing KB946501 which is required for IE8, and hence, your installation will be terminated.

What Operating System languages can IE8 be installed on?

The IE8 beta is currently available in English only. You can install it on any supported localized operating system. For example, if you are running German Windows Vista, you can install IE8. When you switch between languages in the Windows Vista UI, IE8 will continue to appear in English.

How can I tell if I successfully installed IE8?

After IE8 installation is complete, the final screen of the Install Wizard indicates that Internet Explorer installation completed successfully.

After you restart your computer and launch Internet Explorer, you can open the Help->About Internet Explorer dialog to see the version number 8.0.6001.17184

You can confirm that by going to Tools->Help About next time you launch IE

Be sure to check for any new security updates

Are there any required updates for IE8?

There are 2 required updates for IE8:

KB943302 –This update is required for Vista RTM installs only. It will be installed for you automatically as long as you leave the “Install the latest updates” option checked when going through the Setup Wizard.

If this update is not on your computer when you try to launch IE8, you will be prompted to manually install this KB.

KB946501 –This update is required for multi-coreXPSP2 x86 computers only. Similar to the one above, this update will be installed for you automatically as long as you keep the “Install the latest updates” option checked when going through the Install Wizard.

If this update fails to install or you unselect the checkbox, you will not be able to install IE8 until this update is on the computer.

You can find out more about updates that get installed during IE8 setup from knowledge base article KB948564.

What do I do when I run into issues installing IE8?

Check out the knowledge base article on Troubleshooting IE8 installation. If after trying the recommended workarounds you still can’t install IE8, go to the IE Beta Newsgroup to see if there are any known solutions available. Microsoft MVPs and IE Team members are monitoring this newsgroup and they will help address your issues.

The keyboard shortcut for IE developer tools is whacky (claims in the tool tip, ALT+Y), but that only highlights the blue arrow… you then have to press Enter to get it to open, at which point ALT+Y won’t minimize/close it.

When you drag a tab… you can only drag it to the tab row. You can’t drag it to the bookmarks bar (which would be highly intuitive). Note, you can do this in other browsers.

Still can’t close the last tab with a middle click. You need to open a new tab, then close the original.

Can’t drag a bookmark to the favorites bar if it duplicates an existing url. (this is really painful, when you want to add a link, then modify it)

Is it any surprise that Microsoft neglects to release new versions of Internet Explorer to mac users, preventing them from getting jobs? UniCru requires IE in order to apply for many jobs today, and mac users are told to find a windows PC in order to find work.

Since UniCru only supports IE on Windows or Mac (and Netscape, but only on Windows), some form of transaction where UniCru is mentally "slow" or Microsoft is working SHADY BACK ROOM DEALS WITH UNICRU TO KEEP MAC USERS JOBLESS. I fear the latter.

Tom: isn’t that clearly an issue of the UniCru website? You should complain to them instead of here. I don’t think you really miss out on anything not having IE available on the Mac since most alternative browsers are technically superior… (that’s probably considered blasphemy on this blog :P).

Although it is very natural for users to blame the browser software when a site doesn’t work (as expected), it is usually just lousy programming on the site’s end…

IE8 is pretty stable, but the "web" is not quite ready for it yet (it still expects IE to be badly broken – since over the past year, they gave no details about what they planned to fix!)

There’s still a lot of bugs from IE7, and IE6 still in there, and there are new ones in IE8 too.

If you are a developer wanting to test out your sites, I would advise to download the Virtual PC, and give it a run… but if you are just an end user/Internet surfer… wait till there is a stable build with more fixes, and an on-the-fly 7 vs. 8 switcher built in.

Right now, there are waaaaaay to many sites that choke on IE8 to use it as a full time browser. Considering developers have only had a week to investigate it, I wouldn’t expect a lot of sites to be updated to work with IE8 for another 2 weeks or so.

Like a moron, I’m requesting Windows 2000 SP4 support. Why not just ask the users and see the unianimous "YES" for Windows 2000? Even the Silverlight team is supporting it on Windows 2000. Please do the necessary architectural changes but please support it on Windows 2000. Firefox 3.0 runs on it and Opera 9.5 even runs on Windows 95.

Please help the web to get rid of IE6. Without a IE8 version on win2K, we will have to keep creating multiple IE website instead of a single cross-browser website. Creating a standard website and then applying IE8 bugs workaround, IE7 bugs workaround and IE6 hacks around bugs (yeah hacks) is just painfull.

Since win2K is supported by Microsoft until 2015, do you really expect webdevs to support IE6 for the next 7 years ? This is madness.

I think you are all putting the cart before the horse. A web browser is to browse the web and therefore should work with the sites that are out there.

The idea of making a browser that everyone has to alter their sites to suit your browser is backwards. I have gone back to IE6 the reason being is I want a browser to work with the web sites I am viewing. No wonder they are saying firefox etc is better it is a browser made to view the web that is in existence now.

For my website http://www.articleofwisdom.com/. How secure is the ie. I probably wait a few months before I upgrade. I hate to download new things when they first come out. I would like to know for my audience

I have installed Vista Ultimate and know IE7 done work anymore. I have to use Fire Fox what I have to done. I would re installed IE7 but I could not fond I version for Vista. Could you help me further.

Fred, you mentioned that IE7 does not work anymore after you installed Vista Ultimate. What do you mean by IE7 does not work anymore? Does it not launch? What OS were you running before and did it have IE7 on it?

I recommend you try starting IE7 in no add-ons mode to see if that fixes the problem. You can also try resetting IE settings on Advanced Panel of Tools->Internet Options.

If blue (#0066aa) is your hyperlink color then for usability you should not use it for any other titles etc. on your page that are not hyperlinks.

This blog fails because the right hand side is chock full of blue titles, which are also (#0066aa) both of which are not underlined.

The titles in this post are at least a shade different in blue (#0080ff), but they shouldn’t be blue at all.

Its a minor thing but when MS is trying to put a professional image forward for Web Developers a few basic usability issues being addressed would go a long way to indicating some level of commitment to the community at large.

I tried installing it, and everything went ok. The installer said "Internet Explorer has been successfully installed…" But when I tried to find the icon to launch it, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I couldn’t even find IE7. Somehow both of them got wiped entirely off my computer. I even searched through Program Files, WINDOWS, system32, etc. and found nothing. Is this some type of glitch or is my computer acting weird? I’m running Windows XP SP2, fully updated and patched.